Thursday, August 22, 2013

I mastered a ball (except for the finishing bit which annoys me more than I can say)

So totally loving myself sick, glass of red wine in hand I spent some time on Etsy

And bought a whole rainbow of yarn from Planetpenny. I think yarn could be just as addictive as fabric, now that's a quietly sobering thought is it not. I already think this stuff is too nice to use ( until I get better at crochet) so its just like the fabric I can't cut. Surely this 'stashing' is some kind of diagnosed condition.

And rainbow shoes can only signify one thing: The rapidly approaching end to Long Service Leave means the time has come to think about sensible shoes and work pants and lunchboxes and practicing the 'meeting-face'.

But its not over yet and in about 15 minutes I am heading off to craft camp at Sewjourn. So I hate to love you and leave you but I'm outta here honkies, have a great weekend !

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

I’m not that comfortable with shop-hawking on the blog, but I have mentioned on Bookface that the code fortheloveoftuesday will get you a 25% discount in the big cartel shop….. over there under the header. Its running for 24 hrs so for those of you that are enjoying Monday or asleep till Wednesday , it should still be running when you are back in the land of blogs.

Why ? Because Tuesday is a day of promise – there is still enough week left to think we can get everything done but we have gotten over the Monday blahs. It’s not yet hump-day, so we don’t feel like we are on the downhill run. Its Tuesday.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The crochet thing got under my skin a bit. I don’t like being unable to do something. So the almost week that I was at the Craft show I decided to use my train-time and my evenings to play with crochet. It took me a whole morning and a number of slow-motion YouTube videos to ‘master’ the Magic ring.

From there I farted about trying to learn how to increase and decrease

and then I made a hamster, from a pattern. (Well, you know it was supposed to be a hamster but when I put the eyes in, it looked fishy so I just made the rest up and turned it into a fish)

and then I scoured the internet for easy crochet patterns and started a whale. But I got bored with white so tried to add another colour and then just played with the increase, decrease stuff again.

So then I made a ball and I was pretty happy with it.

So I followed a real pattern and made a mushroom which looks Ok from this angle and took me for-bloody-ever by the way….

and it looks a little bit NQR from this angle.

Verdict : It is possible that I could become someone who crochets. I can see that it could happen BUT hell it’s hard work. I need to think and count and keep my tongue at just the right angle. I struggle with how many stitches I have or haven’t got and never have the right amount. Why don’t you count the one on the hook? What’s that about? Its there , I can see it !!! It seems so illogical.

I really struggle with hanging onto everything. I have fingers and string everywhere. I’m clenched and cack-handed and awkward and I move like a busted –arse.

It does not flow. It is not Zen.

( and in the ongoing PDF experiment I have now attached a Big Cartel shop to my blog over on the sidebar and some of my patterns are there, available as PDF’s. More to follow. More to think about. My Craftsy shop has PDF’s and free stuff and my Etsy shop has PDF’s and soon soon soon will have some real life toys as well. Yes three shops does seem like overkill but I’ll suck it and see for a while and then decide. Questions? Comments? complaints? Let me know. )

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

On the weekend I decided I HAD to clean the sewing room It was at the point where nothing could be done in there.

I bought these great door knobs at the Quilt and Craft show and thought it would be a two minute job to attach them…. yep two minutes after I drill the drawer holes bigger and do a little painting because these knobs are a fraction smaller than the ones already on the drawers.

I found

eight unfinished embroidery projects (two of them are big ones)

nine mini embroidery hoops ( I have no idea)

an elephant who needed its ears moved and never got restuffed

Two monkeys and a robot in need of faces, limbs etc.

Plus I found at least another six toys cut out, 14 toys in various stages of “design” and two baskets of half-made toys that I just tucked back into a corner.

Friday, August 2, 2013

My next school holiday kids class is sock monkeys so I thought I'd better get back on the horse and make a few samples for Millrose Quilting in Ballan.

I had forgotten how fast they are. All I needed was a quick fork pom-pom

And Bob's your uncle.

If you are hoping to come along to the kids class in the September holidays, give Millrose Quilting a ring and book your spot. We booked out last time. so even though I plan to make a few more, I have crossed this fellow off the to-do list and skipped joyfully back to a new kind of something idea that might just go where I want it to.